Case: Gilt-brass cannister case with upper and lower moulded rims, the lower face of the bottom rim engraved with fine foliate scrolls to surround the hinged bottom cover. The cover itself is engraved with a border of hatched triangular motifs and has a seeded rose at the centre. The cover is retained be a blued-steel sprung catch. On the inside the cover is also engraved with a decorative hatched border. The case stands on three turned feet.
Around the body of the case is an applied silver band, pierced and engraved with seven panels of foliate scrolls. The upper face of the top rim also has engraved decoration. Screwed to the upper rim is a silver dome which encloses a heavy bell suspended from an arched bridge screwed to the top plate of the movement. The dome pierced and engraved en-suite with the case band.. At the top of the dome is a silver canister with the dial in the top.
A square-section bar fixed vertically to the inside of the case locates the movement which is retained in the case by two key-operated latches. The movement, however, cannot be removed from the case until the lower lid and hinge have been taken off.
Dial: Recessed into the top of the canister is a silver champlevé dial with hours I-XII and trefoil
half-hour marks. In the centre is a silver alarm-setting disc engraved 1-11 and with a steel pointer at 12 to show the time. The middle area is engraved with foliate scrolls, a mask and a basket of fruit. The alarm is set by turning the central blued-steel hand.
Movement: Circular gilt-brass plates, the lower plate retained by pins and decorated all over with finely engraved foliage and flowers. Four pierced and engraved rectangular pillars with decorative tops. Gilt-brass barrel with ratchet and click set-up between the barrel and the upper plate. An applied silver chapter-ring on the back plate, calibrated I-VI and with a blued-steel hand allows the set-up to be adjusted to alter the timekeeping. A very finely cut fusee with gut-line and standard stop-work drives a three wheel going train , the second and contrate wheels recessed into the upper plate and running in a separate bridge which also provides bearing for the recessed wheels of the alarm train. The second and contrate wheels each have three crossings. Verge escapement with a steel two-arm balance which now has an added silver rim on the underside to increase its weight.. Pierced and engraved foliate balance cock decorated with realistic flowers screwed to the plate. The crown wheel runs between a rivetted potence and a screwed-on counter-potence.
The alarm train is powered by a fixed gilt-brass barrel pierced and engraved with foliate scrolls and a rose on the visible side and with blued-steel stop-work wheel mounted on the bottom plate.. Solid gilt-brass great and second wheels and a large solid steel contrate wheel drive a solid steel crown wheel which runs between a shaped potence rivetted to the bottom plate and a screwed-on counter-potence. A curved hammer mounted on the alarm verge strikes the inside of the bell. This verge pivots in a separate cock on the top plate.
The movement is signed around the upper plate beneath the bell:
Henricus Jones Londini Fecit
Henry Jones, apprenticed to Benjamin Hill in 1654 but passed over to Edward East and made Free in the Clockmakers' Company in 1663. Was Assistant in the Company from 1676, Warden 1687-1690 and Master 1691. His business was in Inner Temple Lane and he died in 1695.
Literature:
F.J. Britten, Old Clocks & Watches and their Makers , 3rd ed 1911, p. 108, figs.103-104.
Notes:
The design of this clock, with its drum case surmounted by a dome, is taken from and earlier Flemish tradition. For other examples see Dawson, Drover Parkes, Early English Clocks, Woodbridge 1982, ch.1.